Blakeley, a thirty-two year old Oxford-educated economist/journalist, says that liberal democracies under capitalism are not true democracies. As things stand now, government and capital work together to help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. True democracy is economic democracy, in which citizens not only vote but also have real control over their lives.
Tag: nonfiction
A review of Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert
Sophie Gilbert does some major uncovering in this book, digging deep into the culture’s recent past to unearth the filthy White underbelly that lies beneath. Part archeologist, part pallbearer, she exhumes the back story and brings it kicking and screaming into the light of day. Gilbert writes, “In 1995, a self-help tsunami of a book titled, innocently, The Rules, advised women who wanted to get married to look to 1950s feminine mores for guidance.”
A review of The Hole in Your Life by Bob Rich
Bob Rich is an expert on the subject. He has been a psychotherapist for over 30 years, both in a clinical practice and through extensive volunteering of his services in multiple forums. He also has firsthand experience of the most intense kind of grief, having recenly experienced the loss of his own daughter Natalie to liver cancer in December 2024. The Hole in Your Life, Rich’s 20th book, is dedicated to Natalie and draws heavily on both personal experience and Rich’s extensive clinical understanding of the many pathways grief can take.
A review of Ferryman: The life and deathwork of Ephraim Finch by Katia Ariel
Ephraim’s own journey to self-discovery is itself a terrific story, but what really makes Ferryman stand out is the silky, almost surreal quality of Katia Ariel’s writing. Ariel leans into the complexity of biography, its subjectivity, the interpretations perspectives, and gaps, to create a delicate and complex portrait that feels true precisely because it doesn’t connect every dot.
A review of Elis – Irish Call Girl by Anna Rajmon
Rajmon is as sharp and thoughtful as she is hilarious – in telling her story, she misses nothing regarding her experience. The picture she paints of the Irish prostitution scene is a comprehensive and complex one – from how accommodation is obtained, to how advertising is organized, to how meetings are arranged, to how travel from location to location is organized, to the power dynamics between sex workers, ‘clients’ and ‘agencies’ (‘pimps’ would be a more accurate term) – Rajmon lays it all out in black-and-white.
A review of City Nature by Martha Retallick
The best moments come from the struggle against solitude; with Retallick, it’s the trials-and-errors of learning to “think like water” with her co-op in a drought-filled era, of upcycling a gifted chandelier into a vine climbing gym and a sun-shaking pendant collage. Not the “much more” of products, but the “much more” of the lived-in; we are nature too. The struggle against solitude is the discovery of home, and it glints like pendants.
A review of Age Like a Yogi by Victoria Moran
Passionate about her subjects, her inspired writing makes for inspiring and effortless reading. In her radio shows, podcasts, and videos about other subjects, you get the feeling that she’s speaking directly to you. Similarly, her conversational writing style can make you feel like she’s writing directly to you.
A review of Shattered Motherhood by Donna F. Johnson
Not only does Donna F. Johnson bring her own years of experience to this, she also brings the vast knowledge and insight of so many others, both men and women. Written with authority and conviction and a profound understanding of the political and social implications of the situation, Shattered Motherhood is a vital contribution to the understanding of this all-too-often ignored crisis involving mothers of suicides.
Of Loyalty to Father & Country: A review of At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China Edward Wong
A review of Alive: Our Bodies and the Richness and Brevity of Existence by Gabriel Weston
Alive takes us on a tour of the body by chapter, from bones to lungs to kidney to womb. Weston works hard to turn an anatomy tutorial into a story – or perhaps infuse a story with a bit of a tutorial. Each section provides a scientific and historical overview of the organ in question, a personal narrative of a patient, and often a journey into the role of the treating physician.